


there's nothing more to say

by GhostlyGay



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: (very minor), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, First Kiss, Fix-It, M/M, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 09:47:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21052358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostlyGay/pseuds/GhostlyGay
Summary: A Fix-It of the mess at the end of It Chapter 2





	there's nothing more to say

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic in a While, so please go easy on me because it might be shit. also, as mentioned in the tags, there is blood and violence (throughout) and minor suicidal thoughts (for like a sentence)
> 
> title comes from Hypnotized by Astronomyy

A wet thwunk as a blade pierces a skull. A body falling to the ground, a silver knife clattering from the dead hands. A breathless 'holy shit'. 

It takes a minute for Richie's brain to catch up to what just happened. Bowers, attacking Mike. The tomahawk sitting among a pile of broken glass. That same weapon, now lodged deep in the head of an old bully. He could feel the weight of it's absence in his hand. 

RIchie tries to make a joke before feeling bile rise in his throat. He just has time to turn away from Mike and spare him from the vomit the is forced from his body.

Mike stands as Richie recovers, both unaware of the library door opening. Both men jump at the sound of Bev's startled scream, afraid that Bowers wasn't the only monster Pennywise had scrounged up. 

"Are you alright?" Ben asked as the others moved closer to help their friends. He stood near Beverly, who still seemed to be in shock. Eddie wasn't far behind, eyeing the dead body with caution. 

"No, I'm not alright," Richie exclaimed. "I just killed someone!"

His mind was still reeling from the events of the past few minutes, hell the past few hours. It was as Ben replied with his concern for Mike that Richie saw the bandage on Eddie's face. There was blood on his shirt, too. Richie took half a step toward him before Pennywise's taunting voice replayed in his head. 

Within a few minutes, Bev was calling Bill and Mike was helping patch Mike up. Richie still stood away from Eddie, occasionally glancing at him to make sure he was okay. Everything in Richie wanted to go over to him, check his bandage, ask what happened, hear from Eddie himself that he was alright - but he couldn't. He couldn't do that to himself or to Eddie. 

If he found out, if Eddie learned how Richie felt, it would end their newly rekindled friendship for good. He couldn't lose Eddie, not again. 

\--

"Who killed a killer clown before he turned 14?" Richie wasn't having this. Eddie was the bravest of all of the Losers, why couldn't he see that? So what he froze in the house? They all made it down here, and they could all walk out triumphant.

"Me," came Eddie's small reply. It was obvious he still wasn't believe in his words.

"Who was it that stabbed Bowers after getting stabbed in the face?" When Richie had learned that had happened, he felt much more glad he'd left an axe in the bully's skull. 

"Me, again." There was more pride in this answer, as Eddie looked up into Richie's eyes.

"And who was it that married a woman ten-times his own body weight?" Richie smiled as he reached out to put a hand on Eddie's shoulder.

Rolling his eyes, but now with a determined look in them, Eddie replied, "I did."

"You're braver than any one of us, Eds. It doesn't matter that you froze earlier, we're all here now, and we're all going to kill that damn clown." Richie didn't take his hand from Eddie's shoulder, nor did his eyes leave Eddie's. He knew the moment was dragging on too long, that the others could almost see his true feelings, but Richie couldn't bring himself to move.

"Thanks, Chie." Involuntarily, Richie could feel himself moving closer to Eddie, trying to close the already too-small gap between them.

The moment was broken by Bev, who handed Eddie the broken fence post she had brought in. "It kills monsters."

Smiling again, Richie patted Eddie's cheek, momentarily forgetting about his injury, until Eddie gave a small hiss of pain. Richie mouthed 'sorry', before moving to let Eddie start climbing down the hole with the others.

\--

"Yippee-ki-yay, Motherf-" 

Richie felt everything fall away from him. He was no longer in the lair, but standing in the back of a restaurant. The smell of food from outside their area filled the air, but he wasn't thinking about that. He was thinking about the man standing a few feet in front of him, someone he hadn't seen in almost 25 years. Someone he had forgotten until right now. 

"Trashmouth?" 

Richie remembered this, it had happened earlier, maybe a day ago. Eddie Kaspbrak stood in front of him for the first time in 27 years, and all at once he felt a rush of emotion. Emotion he hadn't felt since he was younger, since he left Derry and Eddie behind. Before he could reply, the others started talking over them.

After a lot of deliberation, everyone took their seats, already eager to get the booze flowing. Eddie sat next to Richie, and the two of them cracked jokes for a bit, until the food came. Then they dined, they talked, and Richie made a number of rude jokes.

Finally, the waitress came by with a bowl of fortune cookies, which everyone grabbed happily. Something was missing, Richie thought, they'd talked about something, something important, didn't they? A notebook, something they'd all long forgotten. He was knocked out of this thought by Eddie's arm reaching over him to get to a cookie. 

As Richie reached for one, he felt something was off, more than the notebook. His hands were shaking as he broke open his fortune cookie. At the sound of the snap, everything changed. 

Richie was younger now, maybe fifteen years old. He was alone, sitting on a bench in the park, waiting. Waiting for someone. For him. Eddie was supposed to meet him there, they were going to talk about something. Something important. Richie was going to tell him, confess his feelings and ruin their friendship. He couldn't hold it in any longer, couldn't live with the longing inside of him. At least if Eddie knew, even if he never spoke to Richie again, he would have gotten it off his chest. That was the important thing. It was eating him up inside. Everyday, he felt it grow stronger, when Eddie laughed at one of his jokes, when the two were roughhousing or grabbing ice cream. 

He was there now, striding across the grass, waving. Richie waved back, before shoving his hands back into his pockets. He didn't want Eddie to see him shake. By the time Eddie had reached him, smiling, Richie knew he couldn't do it, He couldn't risk losing him. He needed Eddie, more than he needed anything else in his life. More than he needed air. 

Eddie was smiling at him when he opened his eyes.

\--

Eddie was above him, a worried laugh escaping his lips. "Richie, wake up, Richie. I killed it. I killed the clown, Richie. Wake up."

As his eyes opened, Richie felt that everything was going to be alright. Eddie was still here, still with him. On top of him, in fact, which was something Richie had dreamt about too often to admit. 

Richie let out a small laugh, as his hand reached up to cup Eddie's cheek - his uninjured one this time. He wasn’t entirely in control of his movements. Eddie's smile never faltered as Richie touched his face. There was a look in his eyes that Richie hoped meant something. 

"Eddie," was all Richie could say. He couldn't think properly given the head trauma he'd probably just suffered and there was a sharp pain in his leg that he was trying to ignore. 

"I did it, Richie," Eddie said, again, one hand on Richie's shoulder, the other next to his head. "I killed-"

All of a sudden there was blood. So much blood, spilling over Richie's clothes, his face. He felt Eddie jerk above him, his breath coming in gasps.

"Richie?" Then he was pulled away, up into the air as Pennywise stood up, very much alive. Richie could only watch as he dangled Eddie off of his claw, as though the clown were taunting him. 

"Eddie!" Richie felt like he was dying as his friend's body went flying toward the wall, bouncing with sickening thuds into the tunnel. 

He was shaking as he ran, not even aware of what was happening. This couldn't be real, this was all a part of Pennywise's torture. He'd wake up from this and Eddie would be there, happy and uninjured in front of him. And then Richie would finally tell him.

Richie couldn’t even bare to touch him as Mike rolled Eddie off of his face. There was a gaping hole in his torso and blood poured from his mouth. This couldn't be real. Richie shrugged off his jacket, quickly pressing it to the wound.

"We have to get him out of here, guys," Richie begged. "We need to get him help."

He could already feel tears building behind his eyes, but he couldn't cry, not yet. Not when Eddie needed him. 

Eddie was speaking, talking about how he defeated the leper, but Richie couldn't hear him. He was fixated on the damp blood soaking through Eddie's shirt. He was breathing too fast, he had hit the ground too hard. In the back of his mind, Richie thought to grab Eddie's inhaler. It was only as he was reaching for it, that he remembered it was in flames. 

"We have to get to the tunnel," Beverly said. "We can make Pennywise small to kill him."

Richie was still shaking as he and Ben helped Eddie up, carefully moving him through the tunnels until they reached the entrance. When Eddie started coughing, they set him down just inside the tunnel to be protected. Richie was still pressing his jacket to Eddie's stomach as the others ran to stop the clown.

"R-Richie," Eddie's breathing was slowing, his eyes partially closed. "There's something I have to tell you."

Richie's mind emptied at those words. His only thought was how much he cared for Eddie. Did he feel the same? Did he really wait until near death to tell him that? They'd known each other for how long, and it was now, just now, that Eddie was going to say he loved Richie?

"I- Richie, I fucked your mom."

Richie couldn't even be mad about what he'd said. Sure, it wasn't what he expected, but if Eddie was joking that meant he'd be fine, right? The wound wasn't as bad as it looked, and Eddie would make a full recovery and then they'd all live happily ever after. 

In the distance, he could hear Pennywise screaming, which meant that their plan was hopefully working. 

"Eddie," Richie raised a hand to the uninjured cheek, "I- I love you."

Eddie let out a quiet cough-laugh. For a moment, Richie thought he'd taken it as a joke, or he hadn't heard him. But then Eddie's hand laid on top of Richie's and he looked into his eyes.

"I know, dumbass. And I love you, too," Eddie broke into a fit of coughs, as Richie processed his words. Richie felt a small sob escaped his throat, his eyes finally watering. He wanted this to be all over, for Eddie to be fine, for them to be done with this fucking clown. "Go- go kill that thing for me."

Shaking, Richie began to stand, firmly believing that they would all make it out. He ran to the center of the cavern, and with a rage he didn’t know he had, ripped a leg off of the slowly deflating baby-clown-thing Pennywise had become. He watched as Mike quite literally removed the clown's heart from it's chest. Then they were all squeezing it, watching the life drain from Pennywise's eyes. The body began to disintegrate, and after a moment, Richie remembered Eddie.

"Eddie!" Richie gasped as he rushed back to his friend. "We did it, Eds. It's dead this time. For real. Eddie, wake up, come on."

Some small part of his brain knew that it was too late,that Eddie wasn't there anymore, but he wouldn’t let himself believe it. Richie shook his shoulder, poked at his wounded cheek - but there was no reaction. 

"Eddie, Eddie, we have to go, come on, wake up, please, Eds."

Richie felt a hand on his shoulder, trying to pull him away. "Rich, honey, he's gone. We have to go."

"We can't leave him here, he needs help. We need to get him to a hospital," Richie was still shaking Eddie, trying in vain to get him to move. "Please, Eds, come on, don't- don't leave me."

As the others tried again to pull Richie away, he pulled Eddie's body forward, wrapping him in a tight hug. He was crying now, still pleading with Eddie to wake up, pleading with the others to help him. When he felt another set of hands grab him, he pressed a small, too short kiss to Eddie's head. 

\--

It took both Mike and Ben to drag the struggling Richie out of the cavern, neither one letting go until they started to climb. Richie kept trying to get back to Eddie, to be with him even though everything was crumbling. For a second when they hit the water, he was free of hands and made a rush back to the hole. He was pulled back just as he was starting to go down, a set of hands wrapped firmly around his arm, dragging him away. 

By the time they finally reached the surface and got onto the street outside the house, Richie was screaming. It took everyone to hold him back from running into the crumbling house. Within seconds, all that remained of the old well house was a small, sunken pile of wood. Finally, the other let him go.

Richie stumbled toward the remains, barely able to keep back a sob. He left Eddie, the man he'd been in love with for three decades. The one who had finally loved him back. He had reached where the front porch had been that he collapsed, grief taking over his body. 

\--

Later, when he'd finally been able to stand again, what remained of the Losers left Niebolt, and went to the only logical place - the quarry. Richie didn't remember the walk there, only the sunlight glinting off the surface as Beverly jumped in. Ben rested a hand on his shoulder before following the others in. 

Richie remembered the summers spent here, diving off the cliff into the water below. He remembered cracking jokes and telling stories here, everyone's awe when Beverely had first sunbathed around them. But most of all, he remembers grabbing Eddie's hand as they jumped together when Eddie was too afraid to do so alone. 

He ended up jumping, alone, landing in the water and hitting the bottom. Richie sat there for a moment, debating whether or not it was worth it to go up for air, when Beverly sank down next to him. She squeezed his shoulder before returning to the surface, Richie following after her.

He didn’t realize his glasses were broken and messy until they reached shallower water. When he took them off, he saw them stained with Eddie's blood and scrubbed at them furiously. He heard the others talking about how Eddie would hate this, hate that they were cleaning off in dirty water. 

He hadn't realized that he was sobbing until he felt the others move closer to him and wrap their arms around him. Richie had never told any of them what Eddie had meant to him, but he was sure they understood now. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he looked around at his friends around him. 

"I can't see who any of you are," he said, letting out a sad laugh. "I lost my glasses."

They all laughed a little, before diving under the water to search for them. Richie could only see the outlines of where everyone was, and he was thankful for the moment alone. Of course, in true Loser fashion, that was a very short amount of time.

He saw someone moving in front of him, reaching out with what could have been glasses in hand. Whoever it was slowly put them on his face, laughing a little.

When Richie opened his eyes, his first thought was that the blood was gone. His second thought was less of a thought and more of another sob. In front of him stood a soaked and blood-covered Eddie, no gaping stomach hole in sight.

"Is this real?" Richie asked as he threw himself around Eddie, shaking. "Is it really you?"

"It's me, Rich, it's me."

The others were beginning to resurface, and all of them seemed equally shocked. Soon, six grown adults were piling into a long overdue group hug. They stayed like that for a while, until finally, Richie got too fidgety and pretty much pushed everyone but Eddie away.

"How are you here?" Bill asked in amazement. Eddie was alive and here and standing in front of him, and more importantly, _ alive _. 

"I don't know, exactly," Eddie began. He was sitting close to Richie, their hands intertwined under the water. "I think when we killed It, we undid what had happened. I woke up, and you guys were gone, and the cave was falling apart. I tried to go back the way we came, but ended up in the sewers. I came out in the Barrens."

Richie let out a small laugh, which was met with a "What?" from Eddie.

"It's just - you said you _ came out _."

"Well, I did, didn't I?" Eddie questioned, with a smile. Soon, everyone understood what Richie was laughing at, and they were all laughing. The group ended up staying at the quarry for a while, before heading back towards the Inn.

\--

"There's something I want to show you," Richie slowed his car to a stop and got out before Eddie could ask any questions. 

Eddie followed him out onto the kissing bridge, where Richie knelt with a small pocket knife. In front of him were dozens of names and initials carved into the wood of the bridge, some faded and some brand new.

"What is it?" Eddie asked, kneeling beside Richie with a small grunt of pain. Even though the hole itself was gone, Eddie was still sore. "Is that-"

"I carved back after we first dealt with Pennywise," Richie explained. "I- I didn't know how to tell you then, I was too afraid of losing you."

Richie looked at Eddie then, decades of last time between the two. Richie began to recarve the faded R+E he had put there so long ago. Then, Eddie was reaching out to Richie, pulling him closer until their lips met. It was the best kiss that Richie had ever had, and he never wanted it to end.

**Author's Note:**

> ok so i know the other characters are barely mentioned and have like 0 emotion, but it is currently midnight and i need to wake up for the day in five hours so apologies. please leave a comment if you liked it or hated it, i would really appreciate feedback


End file.
